


Beaten Tower

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, F/F, although given that it's the future kids that's kinda a given, don't worry it cheers up a little at the end, very little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22127470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: Always at the end of the world, in the future of darkness, a group of courageous children march on. They've split their forces to confuse their enemy, but risen are craftier than they think.Written for @fsnowemblem on tumblr, for the Nagamas 2019 event!
Relationships: Degel | Kjelle/Noire, Lucina/Noire (Fire Emblem), Noire/Serena | Severa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Beaten Tower

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i know you probably just wanted like a nice, fluffy story and i'm sorry, uh. Merry holidays! have some pain.  
> also "graphic depictions of violence" is a bit of an exaggeration, i just want to be safe. if i were just posting this outside of an event, i wouldn't use that tag.

Noire’s hands were jostling more from her nerves than from the horse underneath her. She was pressed flush against Severa’s back, and didn’t dare let go. There was blood running down the back of Severa’s neck. She couldn’t smell anything besides the acrid taste of blood and corpses. Lucina shouted from somewhere far ahead of them,

“The castle is just over this hill! Prepare to dismount!” Noire cringed, she had just gotten used to being thrown around like a sack of potatoes on this horse.

Severa said, “I’m going to jump off first, okay? Then I’ll help you down.”

“Sorry…” Noire muttered. She probably didn’t hear it. Severa already knew how burdensome she would be.

In the darkness, Noire couldn’t even see when they crested the hill. From the crack of dawn, the sky was covered in black, rainless clouds. The only point of light was Laurent’s torch. That, and the tiny red lights chasing them everywhere. An arrow whizzed by, Severa cursed at it.

“Noire, can you- no, sorry, forget I said anything.” Noire felt a pain in her chest. There was a loud clattering as the horse’s hooves sprinted over a wooden drawbridge. Severa stopped the horse roughly, and followed it up by petting the horse and whispering some baby-talk. Noire did love watching her groom the horses. Severa dropped off the side and into the darkness.

Lucina shouted, “KJELLE?! Kjelle!” There wasn’t any response.

Laurent stated, “They’re late. We have to hold until they get here.”

Arrows splashed in the moat underneath them, and the distinctive red lights of Risen eyes appeared on the ridge. Twelve pairs, six archers and their undead mounts. Severa tugged at her leg and Noire leaned into her arms. “Here we go. Do you think you can stand?”

“Maybe… “ Severa dropped her onto the bridge, and Noire’s legs immediately collapsed beneath her. Noire cringed and tried to get out of Severa’s arms. She gasped,

“The arrows! You can’t stay here!”

Severa glared, “Neither can you!” She pulled Noire’s arm over her shoulder and smacked their horse, who bolted into the castle. Lucina ran over,

“Severa, Noire, you should get into the castle and prepare to close the portcullis. Our allies will return shortly.”

Severa laughed, “Allies? You mean your girlfriend?” 

“She’s not… my only girlfriend.” Lucina coughed loudly.   
“Gods would you idiots stop flirting and give us orders! I want to kill risen!” Nah shouted and made clawing motions with her hands. Lucina did a heel-turn, then sighed,

“Back up Laurent with your own spells. Save your dragonstone.” Laurent was completely ignoring the people behind him, he was sniping the archers off their mounts with fireballs. Nah groaned,

“I wanna be a dragon.”

“Same.” Cynthia smiled and joined Laurent with her spear. Noire found herself standing next to Severa, who elbowed her,

“Come on, you heard her. Besides, you’ll be better on the ramparts.”

“R-right.”

Even though she didn’t really need to, Noire felt herself clinging to Severa. She held her hand, and pressed up against her when they rounded corners. Severa stated,

“Can’t get enough of me, eh? You already spent like an hour clinging to my back.”

Noire couldn’t see her expression in the dark. “Sorry, I’ll keep my distance.” She tried to release Severa’s hand, but she wouldn’t let it go.

“Uh! Uh, I mean, if you really,  _ really _ , want to! But I won’t complain if you stay close!”

Severa had stopped, and Noire saw a brief flash of her eyes and an awkward smile. It was all the encouragement Noire needed to kiss her. Her head was pounding, her heart ached from worrying, and she wanted nothing but to be close to someone she trusted.

Noire stammered, “Was… Was that close enough?”

Severa backed up and let go of Noire’s hand. She was breathing heavily. 

“I’ll… You can make it to the ramparts on your own, right?”

“I’m sorry-”

“IT’S fine!” Severa interrupted her, then laughed uncomfortably, “I’m sure they need me out there, sorry, bye.”

She had to walk around Noire to get to the exit. It felt like Noire stabbed herself in the heart. Her fingers trailed after Severa’s retreating, scarlet hair. Noire turned around and stiffly walked up to the ramparts. The only way to make up for it would be to destroy all of Severa’s enemies. In her pocket, she felt her amulet.

\--

The tactical situation had worsened. The six archers went down easily enough, but they were just scouts. From the east, there was a vast sea of silent, red lights, easily over a hundred pairs. In the dark, all Noire had to go on was tiny, occasional flashes of shiny metal, but that was surprisingly uncommon. Some risen towards the front definitely had swords, but there was a huge swath of unarmed risen.

Noire began stripping the pitch off a torch and rubbed it onto three arrows.

On top of all that, Noire spotted lights flickering in and out as if something was covering them briefly. That could be an indication of wings preparing to take flight. She could handle wyverns, easily.

She took out three small bottles and replaced the heads on her pitch-coated arrows with them.

It was going to be a lot of fun for Noire. Hopefully there’d be a sniper to trade blows with. Just before she launched the first projectile, and permanently broke the perfect, pre-battle quiet, she glanced at the children arranged in front of the castle.

Cynthia had a torch and her spear, and stood at the front of the drawbridge like she forgot something. If Noire’s visibility was poor, the visibility on the bridge was even worse. Lucina stood at the front with the Falchion, the picture of dignity and power. Severa stood nearby, but even in the torchlight, Noire couldn’t see her face. Nah and Laurent were practising fireballs and muttering to each other.

They didn’t know where the risen were. It was going to be so funny to watch them freak out about the army on their doorstep. Noire cackled, brought out her flint and tinder, and lit the first arrow. She aimed high; with the extra weight it wouldn’t fly straight.

It collided with the front of the column. Nearly half of the first row caught alight. Another flaming arrow exploded in the back. In the brief flash, Noire scanned for wyverns or other winged beasts, but didn’t spot any. The last arrow landed somewhat sloppily into the middle of the formation, near the moat. With the new, flickering lights, Noire could finally spot targets, and execute them.

Noire climbed up onto the railing. The castle behind her, and a thousand risen between her and a fifty foot drop. She shouted,

“THIS IS THE NIGHT OF YOUR UNMAKING! I WILL STEAL YOUR BLOOD AND PAINT THE LAND RED!”

Then began firing arrow after arrow into the crowd. She hit their eyes every single time, dissolving them into nothing. The flaming risen were sprinting for the moat to put out the blaze, which made them easy targets. Not a single one made it further than halfway down.

The floor started hissing. Noire leapt off the railing and rolled onto the rampart walkway just as a stinking mire erupted from the ground. It melted a huge chunk of brick. Just as Noire got up to shoot at whatever mage cast that, a dozen fireballs flew over her head. She had to move constantly to stay out of the next erupting mire. With enough focus, Noire began loosing arrows while running. The mages were separated in pockets around the column, and all of them were dressed in long, thick robes. They were converted Ylissean mages. Noire grit her teeth. Her arrows flew true, and released them from their misery. While the mages distracted her, she let a few risen extinguish themselves. 

The entire column was advancing towards the front of the castle, with fewer risen than before. Laurent and Nah’s magic tore apart the front lines, but they didn’t have Noire’s vantage point. She was the only one who could take out the mire-slinging mages. One of the mages stopped aggrieving her, and she shot it. Each mage who even briefly lost their focus on Noire received an arrow through the head. With the other mages free to take potshots, each fireball was another near miss. Noire laughed as one scorched the side of her leg. Then she slipped in the wet, half-dissolved brick, and screamed as a column of purple poison ate her armour and scraped her skin. A cut she forgot about burned like it was hit with actual fire. The pain kept her plastered to the ground.

Noire knew, logically, that the next hit would keep her down for good. With the pendant in her hand, she didn’t care. She hopped up, and drew her bow with three arrows at once to make up for the lost time. Only two of the arrows hit the mark. This time, she focused on the mages attacking her directly, especially the craftier ones with unique spells. One carried a flame spell that had a very tiny projectile, but erupted in a large fireball once it hit the terrain. Another’s fireball spun in a corkscrew pattern. They all fell to her arrows. Even after so many hits, there were still so many risen. Lucina held the front line, backed up by Cynthia and Severa, but the bridge was too wide for them to defend. They had already lost ground.

She let out a growl and made her way to ramparts over the bridge. This is where her impact would be felt. The pendant thrummed in her hand. She could take out a row of five risen at once with a little bit of preparation. Turning her bow sideways, she sized up the situation and reached for her quiver. She came back with one arrow.

Noire let out a choked sob and put the arrow back. All of her joints, her nose and her fingernails were bleeding. Just sobbing on the ground felt awful. But she couldn’t help anymore. The other group would never appear. Noire put her pendant over her neck. Its presence was entirely gone.

Underneath her, she could hear the voices of her companions. Only barely over the voices of hundreds of risen, clamoring for their deaths. They had been pushed back to halfway across the bridge. Severa was roaring at her opponents, each of her swings was accompanied by a splash into the moat. Clearly she was using her sword less as a weapon, and more like a paddle. The rest of the party was nearly silent. Which struck Noire as just a little strange.

Lucina shouted, “We’re nearly there, wait on Laurent’s count.”

“On three. One.”

There was a loud bang, Cynthia screamed, “Are those supposed to snap?!”

“Two.”

Risen roared, and Nah roared back. 

“Three.”

A dragon erupted out of the gatehouse and sprinted across the bridge. Her sheer momentum and weight launched most of them out of the way, and the stragglers were picked off by Cynthia, Lucina and Severa. Noire leaned over to watch. Nah nearly ran into the crowd, but Lucina grabbed her tail and shouted,

“Stick to the plan!”

Nah growled, and bared her teeth at Lucina. The others ran back to the gatehouse, and Nah loosed her breath onto the bridge. Within seconds, it was covered in a thick layer of ice. Laurent used wind magic to smooth it out and shape it into two ramps. Nah flew to the gatehouse and shifted back into a human, right next to Noire. She smirked,

“Pretty cool, huh? If Lucina just let me do that all the time, we’d never lose.”

“Sorry… I should’ve done better.” Noire squeezed the cold brick until it hurt.

“Uh, no one expected you to be able to hold off an army by yourself, Noire. You showed us where they were, and thinned them out.” Nah laughed, “Also, I don’t think we got attacked by a single archer or mage. Ya did good.”

“Oh.”   
“Do you mind if I stick up here? This is a pretty good vantage spot.” Noire turned around, Nah had produced a spellbook.

“No, that sounds great.”

The icy bridge was properly shaped so any reckless movement would send the risen directly into the moat. They adjusted their tactics, and began crossing slowly, which made them absolute sitting ducks for Laurent and Nah, and Cynthia’s javelins. Cynthia shouted with each throw, but her accuracy wasn’t great. Within just a few minutes, the first risen had made it across the ice. It was instantly decapitated by Lucina’s Falchion. Still, their sheer numbers meant that more kept coming.

In the distance, a small group of risen wearing sheer robes came out of the woods. Noire patted Nah on the shin,

“Look! You have to take those out, I don’t think Laurent or anyone else can see them.”

“Huh?” Nah squinted, “Oh wow, good eye, Noire! Yeah, let’s see if I can do some sniping of my own!”

Nah wasn’t even half as accurate as Laurent, and her spells barely had enough power to cross the bridge. There was no way Noire would point that out, though. What would Kjelle do in this situation? Noire looked at the brick wall. Some of the bricks were loose from repeated assaults and long battles.

The first brick struck home, and crushed the mage immediately. Nah cackled,

“What in Naga’s name?! That’s a way better idea!” Nah put the tome away and started throwing bricks. “Look at that one fly!”

Noire couldn’t help but giggle, Nah’s elation was infectious. The mages weren’t even in range, but they already gave up on whatever their plan was. One with an ornate, jeweled skull ordered several huge, armoured risen with bulky shields to protect them. 

“Aw, you think that’ll protect you?!” Nah growled, then shifted briefly. For just a second, her arm was that of a huge, divine dragon. She clawed a huge chunk of masonry off the gatehouse and hurled it into their formation. Two of the knights fell immediately, and Noire hurled a brick into the gap. The ornate-looking risen retreated, but left a few dark mages to take potshots at Nah and Noire.

Nah was in the middle of cackling when a well-placed fireball smacked her in the chest. She let out a hacking gasp, which turned into a regular, non-pained groan. Having dragon skin must be really nice. Noire stated,

“It’s safer to stay on the ground.”

“Aha yeah. I was having too much fun.” She adjusted her ruined dress, “This is probably why my mom only wore clothes made out of her own scales.”

“You can do that?”

“Nah, it takes manaketes a really, really long time to shed. Once I’m like a hundred I could probably make a coat or two.” Nah blinked, then stared really hard, “Uh, Noire? Are your eyes… bleeding?”

There was a crust around Noire’s eyes. She picked at it a little, “No, that’s dried blood.”

“Huh. Should probably get that checked out.” Noire nodded in agreement. “And by ‘get that checked out’ I mean, take a break, yeah? Maybe go for a walk or something.”

The battlefield was still raging. Their ice bridge was covered in risen, and the situation was the same as before. Except that two elite risen knights in full plate mail were stomping the ice to pieces. Noire picked up a brick. Nah took it from her.

“I’ll make sure to throw twice as many.” Nah smiled, “You can count on me.”

“All… all right.”

“Oh, and if it’ll make you feel any better, take this fire tome. You can probably use it better than me, anyway.”

Noire pressed the tome to her chest and walked west. She didn’t exactly feel up to walking peacefully. The sound of battle was a constant reminder that her friends were in danger, and she couldn’t do anything about it.

Instead, she used the one skill she had left, her eyes, and scanned the land. Maybe there was another threat she hadn’t seen. Sure enough, walking by the side of the castle were a few shadowy figures. Noire lit a fireball. It expanded into an uncontrollable inferno, and she yelped as it fell from her grasp and tumbled into the moat. Across the shimmering waters, for a brief second, she spotted Kjelle, Minerva, Gerome, and the rest of their group. Owain shouted,

“Noire! Excellent to see you!”

“S-sorry! Watch out!” Brady stepped in front with a warding staff, but he didn’t even bother activating it. Instead his jaw dropped as he looked up at her.

“Noire I think yer bleeding something fierce, are ya’ll in trouble?!”

“Yeah! Yes! They need help at the bridge right now! We were trying to hold it for you!”

Gerome swore, “Doesn’t Lucina know that we can just fly in?!” Minerva nodded along with him.

In the dim light, Kjelle wasn’t too visible. What was visible was miserable fear. Kjelle shouted,

“Whatever they did to you, we will double in ferocity. Noire, point the way.” She turned just as her eye started twitching, “Gerome, can Minerva bring you and I to the front?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what we’ll do. Everyone else, double-time.” She jabbed her finger at Yarne, “And if you aren’t fighting before the regular humans with shorter legs than yours, I’ll make you into rabbit stew.”

Inigo made a quiet remark and Owain immediately hit him. Kjelle ignored them, and let Gerome help her mount Minerva.

They shot towards the army at top speed. Their arc was majestic, Kjelle looked ready to leap from the wyvern at any moment. Cynthia shouted, Severa yelled, and Lucina said something that was probably very thoughtful and encouraging but really couldn’t be heard over the risen and heavy clank of weapons.

Then Minerva took a complete nosedive, still many yards from the besieged bridge. The ornate dark mage stood at the front of the column advancing towards Kjelle. It prepared another gigantic windstorm with one hand, and effortlessly commanded its forces with the other. There were still so many, and now they were going to kill Kjelle, too. The dried blood on Noire’s face ran red.

Noire drew her last arrow.

It struck home. She exhaled as its red eyes went out. A massive blast of red light shot from the heavens. Noire grabbed her eyes and dove for cover. The red light coloured every surface, the tips of the trees, the ground beneath her feet, all of her companions still on the drawbridge, and the hundreds of risen standing shocked in

Cynthia let out a whooping laugh, “We won! They’ll burn up in the sun!”

Kjelle and Laurent shouted a correction, and Owain shouted something even more inane.

It was the sun. Shooting that risen had cleared the clouds, somehow, and the orange, overwhelmingly bright sunset still blinded her. Noire couldn’t see any of the risen still besieging their castle. She was completely useless. While crouched against the castle wall, Noire lowered her bow and took a deep breath. Everything was going to be fine. The red light died down. It became harder and harder to stand up, so Noire sat on the ground.

The sky was covered in rivulets of fire, orange light cutting through purple clouds. With a long sigh, Noire relaxed her shoulders, closed her eyes, and let herself rest for just a brief moment. In the distance, she could hear the occasional sound of metal clashing against metal. But much louder and more distinct than that, she could hear her friend’s laughing voices. It felt like she was part of the celebration too. Noire fell asleep.

\--

Her eyes opened to Lucina, holding a bowl of hot soup. She had just the fainest hint of a smile. That was all Noire needed to know that they were safe.

“Don’t worry, Severa made the soup. It’s edible.”

“Thank you.” Noire smiled, “I’m sure you could learn to cook. It’s very similar to alchemy.”

“Ah. You learned that from your mother, correct?”

“I… suppose so.”

“Don’t feel that you have to bring up painful memories for my sake, Noire.” Lucina took one of Noire’s hands in her own.

“It doesn’t usually remind me of Tharja anymore. Working on potions is something I do for you and all of our friends.”

“I understand. If you wish, you can teach me as much about alchemy as you like.” Lucina smiled so sweetly and softly that Noire wanted nothing more than to kiss her. As if kissing someone wouldn’t just lead to more pain down the line. Instead, Noire opened her arms for a hug, and Lucina squeezed her instantly. Her head was just above her shoulder. Lucina whispered,

“You were astounding in that last battle, your firepower was so incredible. Thank you.”

“It’s no problem.”

“As always, do remember that you can rely on us as well. Watching you collapse in exhaustion is always painful.” Lucina pulled back, just slightly, and there was a tiny tear on her cheek, “When Severa brought you back, I feared for the worst.”

Ah. Noire felt a shooting pain. Not from physical injuries. There was some unfinished business she had to attend to. Lucina retreated from Noire’s side and retrieved the soup.

“I’d hate for it to get cold. Do you want me to feed it to you?” Noire blushed. Was this Lucina’s idea of doing something romantic? “Not… that I think you need it, of course, I just thought it could be fun.” Oh, yes, then. Noire grinned to herself.

“Oh! Maybe for a few spoonfuls, I don’t want to take up your whole afternoon.”

“Don’t worry. This day is for you.” How cryptic. Noire definitely didn’t want to say no to Lucina’s hospitality, and greatly enjoyed being pampered by her. She wasn’t as gentle or as thoughtful as Severa, but her earnestness always made Noire’s heart flutter. At one point, Lucina even climbed onto the bed.

But Noire made sure not to get too close. There was a complicated twinge in her chest when the last spoonful of soup disappeared. She had taken up Lucina’s time, but it had been so much fun.

There was no way she could lie to Lucina about something like this. Instead of carefully conveying her words, she blurted out,

“Thanks but I need to talk to Severa I think I hurt her earlier,” Noire leapt out of bed. She was dressed in pajamas, “Bye thanks again!”

“Wait, you need to rest-”

Noire sprinted out of the room. At least she wasn’t screaming.

The castle was much cheerier and more inviting in the sunlight. The keep had a long, circular hallway surrounding the second story rooms, with windows that let in thin slits of sunlight. You could walk around the hall and see the entire castle in seconds. The stable with their three horses, Cynthia’s pegasus, and Minerva. The wyvern was licking her many wounds, and both Gerome and Brady were trying to get her to stop to re-apply her bandages. Gerome had a cast on, too. One reckless move had cost them so much.

Noire sighed and leaned on the wall.

“Noire! Why’re you out of bed?”

“Oh, I just got a little restless,” Telling the truth had gone poorly once, so she wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“Do you know how many injuries you ended up with, Noire?!” Kjelle nearly grabbed her, but stopped herself at the last moment, “Sorry, are you still sore?”

She still looked guilty. Noire pulled her into a tight embrace, “I’m sorry, I didn’t have a good strategy.”

“I didn’t either. But I didn’t come up here to yell at you. You were astounding. I heard about your fighting from Lucina. Apparently you took out every single mage-”

Noire mumbled, “Except one.”

Kjelle pulled back and levelled her gaze at Noire, “Come on. Don’t be hard on yourself. Just for me?” Kjelle smiled, but it was a little awkward and showed off too many of her teeth. It made Noire’s heart flutter anyway.

“Okay.”

“Did Lucina forget to bring clothes?”

Noire became immediately aware of how cool the floor was, “Oh, not at all, I just ran away from her.” Kjelle raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t have a good excuse, and I need to talk to Severa.”

“She’s over on the east side. Just sat down and stared at the sun for a good hour or two. What’d you do?”

Noire stammered and hid her face, “I… I kissed her.”

“Oh yeah, that’ll do it.” She whistled, “Probably won’t move for a week.”

“Don’t joke about this! It’s serious!”

Kjelle nodded, “Totally serious, cross my heart. Kiss for luck?”

“Mhm. It feels insensitive.” Noire pecked her on the cheek.

“I meant the other way around… nevermind. Good luck.”

Noire waved as she left. It did feel just a tiny bit easier to bear. Just being around Kjelle put her at ease. She stepped out into the courtyard, and was immediately reminded that she was wearing pajamas by a passing breeze. Noire resolved to join Severa after retrieving some clothes.

\--

“T-thanks for the soup, Severa.”

Severa jolted in place, but didn’t turn her head. She stated, “Yeah. No problem.”

“Are you mad at me?”

Severa helped Noire onto the castle railing. The drop was immense, there was no backing, and Noire’s head immediately swam. She reached out for something to hold onto, and Severa caught her arm. She pulled Noire into a tight, secure embrace.

“I don’t… think so.” Severa groaned, “No, I can’t be mad at you. I was just… really surprised. How long have you felt that way?”

“I sort of assumed we were dating already.” Severa coughed loudly, “Kjelle and I do similar things, I just kiss her more often.”

“Wait, you’re dating Kjelle?!”

“I guess you need to pay more attention.” Noire leaned into Severa. She wasn’t the nervous one right now. “I’m… I’m really sorry, I should’ve asked beforehand. You don’t have to forgive me right away. Or ever.”

“Yeah.” Severa wrapped both her arms around Noire and rested her head on her shoulder. Noire stroked her head. It was really hard to avoid looking down. “I… saw you laying there. And…” Severa sniffed loudly, “You didn’t look… good.”

“Oh, Severa…”

“I didn’t know if you had gone up there to die.” That last word was pointed. Noire felt herself shake, “Sorry. No, fuck, that’s too heavy to wake up to.”

“Did you have to fall asleep like that?”

Severa laughed, but not nicely, “I didn’t sleep. That was my fault. Brady told me over and over that you were alive.”

The sun was already high in the sky. Noire could barely focus on it, she was trying so hard not to cry. She had hurt Severa, and it’d be so, horribly manipulative if she cried too. Over to their right, Noire could see the melted stone where she fought the mages. Even with its sturdy construction, without maintenance, they couldn’t stay here forever. 

“I’m sorry.”

Severa made a choked sob. She was trying not to cry, too, but Noire could already feel the tears on her shoulder. Noire whispered,

“You were great. I saw you fight off like, a hundred risen.”

Severa sniffled, “No, you were greater. You fought off like, twice that. Oh, and you actually killed them. I just shoved them into the river.” She scoffed, “I had to go and finish them off later. It was such a pain.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. It was nighttime by then, so I held a torch while Nah threw bricks into the water. She hit them like, one out of every fifteen hundred times, it was ridiculous. And apparently she got the idea from you?”

“She was very enthusiastic about it.”

“Oh yeah, I could tell. Every other second, she would be like, ‘We’ve got all these bricks, why not use them for something?’ As if they aren’t being used to  _ hold up the walls _ !”

Noire giggled, Severa had a great Nah impression. Well, she did a good impression of everyone, even the risen.

“Then I had to show her how to do it properly, and you know what she said?”

“What?”

“‘We should have a competition!’ and then, ‘Oh, but all my previous risen count!’ Ridiculous! She had a fifty-head lead on me!”   
“But you still won?”

Severa scoffed, “Of course I did.” She sighed, “I’m kinda tired.”

“I’ll lead you to bed.”

“Huh. Usually it’s the other way around.”

Noire hopped down from the railing, then held out a hand for Severa. She was surprisingly unsteady. But her hand gripped onto Noire’s like a too-small ring. Noire didn’t want her to let go, but she didn’t think Severa would give her the option. For a long while. Noire was more than happy to oblige.

**Author's Note:**

> i quite liked this prompt. i tried out some of the others, but i still don't have a great grasp on lysithea and edelgard's relationship, and i love polyamory. In this case, it's purposely a little more ambiguous, especially with Lucina. I feel like the future kids wouldn't have all their relationships in order at this stage, probably haven't even had a proper conversation about it. but later? maybe selena takes three wives with her to nohr. who knows?
> 
> please leave kudos or comments if you'd like! i love receiving both of them on fics of any age.


End file.
